We, out of necessity, must look outside the proverbial "box" when hiring today. For many years we have had most of the focus on an applicants skills, i.e. degrees, certifications, grades, etc. Once hired, we assumed they had the Integrity we expected. It is time to divert some of those hiring energies into investigating the foundation to all skills, character.
I pose a simple question, what good is a master's degree from the prestigious Harvard Business School (4.7 GPA) if the person does not show up (dependability) for work? Where is the ROI when you spend many months training a person that you have to fire or they quit? Even worse, what do you do when this great hire becomes your worst nightmare and negatively impacts the whole team? What you do is wish you could turn the clock back so you could "not" hire them.
Let's start emphasizing the importance of character at the start of the hiring process. Begin by holding yourself to a higher standard, fix your mistakes (like I'm sorry), and start celebrating other people when they make right choices, i.e. Character.
Character is so important the new dean of the Harvest Business School recently shared the focus at this great school. Competence and Character.
Take a look at the sample hiring guide here.
http://www.characterfirst.com/assets/Files/CharacterHiring.pdf
